


A Gift for a Bard

by elder-flower (elder_flower)



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, duh he's a bard, geralt feeling awkward, jaskier is good at music, recorders are cool fight me, reuniting after The Mountain (tm), they are silly bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24907018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elder_flower/pseuds/elder-flower
Summary: Geralt's been carrying a gift for Jaskier around for over a year. Actually giving it to him is awkward and he hates it, but anything's better than getting hugged.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 9
Kudos: 220





	A Gift for a Bard

**Author's Note:**

> This is totally self-indulgent and I wrote it because I'm obsessed with the recorder right now (currently teaching myself to play the tenor!) and wanted Jaskier to have one (and also Geralt to give him something). I called it a block flute though, which is what's it's called in German and other languages, because...? I'm not actually sure, I think it just sounded better to me in this context.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr [(elder-flower)](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/elder-flower) but I don't know why you'd want to.

"I have a gift for you," Geralt says.

The words sound hurried, too loud, and he didn't mean to say them, but Jaskier is about to hug him, he can tell, and he absolutely cannot be dealing with being hugged right now. Not after the _ordeal_ of forcing himself to express some of what he feels (his remorse at how they parted, his joy at seeing Jaskier again after nearly two years). Not after the surprise and relief of his (clearly awful) apology being instantly accepted.

It works: Jaskier stops in his tracks and stares at him in even greater disbelief than when he first caught sight of him (and was that really only a few minutes ago? Talking about feelings really is fucking exhausting).

"A gift? Really?" He sounds excited and surprised, and he's smiling, but there are still tears in his blue eyes and Geralt... decides looking at the ground is easier than looking at his face. "You didn't need to get me a gift, you know. Just you apologising is enough. More than enough, really, I mean, some of what you said back then was true, and I... Just seeing you again is... Oh, I'm going on aren't I, I'm sorry, I'm just... nervous I guess, which is silly, we..."

Geralt tunes out his rambling to dig around in his pack for the gift he acquired only weeks after last seeing Jaskier and has carried around ever since. He's spent a lot of time wondering how one is supposed to go about giving gifts, and had planned, assuming they ever found themselves in each other's company again, to just... leave it somewhere for the bard to find when an opportunity arose. If Jaskier turned out to want nothing to do with him, he'd intended simply to hand it to him and leave. 

Either would have been less awkward than he feels now, honestly.

As he unearths the small package, carefully wrapped in protective waxed fabric, and stands straight again, Jaskier stops his chattering to look at him and smile at him some more (and Geralt doesn't think he's on the verge of actually crying any more, which is good, but the looking and the smiling aren't helping the fucking awkwardness). 

"It's not for that," he tells Jaskier, then looks away again in favour of addressing the gift, which displays a level of expression he's more comfortable with. "It's not... part of me... saying sorry. I just saw it and thought you'd like it."

"That's so thoughtful- oh, okay!" Jaskier starts to exclaim and is cut off as Geralt thrusts the gift in his general direction. (Perhaps he should have accepted the hug and been done with it. He's just... not good at this, at any of this.)

Jaskier takes it and looks down at it as if it's really very confusing to him, then looks back at Geralt. Geralt just nods at him, feeling slightly better about not knowing how to give gifts, as Jaskier apparently doesn't know how to receive them.

"Thank you so much, Geralt!" he says eventually, and Geralt just knows he's about to go off on one again, so he tries to head him off.

"Just open it," he orders gruffly, and Jaskier nods.

"Yep, yep, I'll just... open it then..." he mutters half to himself as he carefully unwraps the fabric to discover his gift: a small flute carved from rosewood, with bands of thin metal around the neck as decoration. Geralt eyes it, assessing (he hasn't looked at it in well over a year, after all, since he acquired it) and finds it still seems like a suitable gift choice. 

Jaskier, though, is gaping at it as if he's never seen its like.

"It's a... block flute?" Geralt tells him, uncertain as to both whether he's remembered the name correctly and whether Jaskier maybe hates it. 

Jaskier keeps staring down at it, apparently in shock, and Geralt frowns, annoyed at himself. What a stupid idea for a gift. Jaskier's a bard, for fuck's sake, if he wanted to play a flute he'd already have one, but he doesn't (at least he didn't the last time Geralt checked). And if he wanted one, he'd want to choose it himself, not play one picked out by someone with literally no musical knowledge because he thought it looked well crafted and he liked the shape. 

"We can... You can... sell it, if it's not... good…" Geralt says, and if it sounds like he's forcing the words out through gritted teeth it's only because he's so fucking pissed off at himself right now (and not at all embarrassed or disappointed, both of which are things he never feels).

"Fuck no, Geralt!" Jaskier exclaims indignantly, holding the flute and its wrapping to his chest as if Geralt has threatened to take it from him. "We're never, ever selling it! It's perfect and I love it!" His defiant expression softens and he smiles at Geralt in a way nobody should smile at someone who viciously rejected them the last time they met. "Really, I love it," he says so warmly that Geralt can't help but believe he does. "It's beautiful, it's such a thoughtful gift! Thank you!"

"Can you play it?" Geralt asks him, mainly because he doesn't know how to respond directly to such sincere thanks (or such an adoring, undeserved smile).

"Well, no, but don't worry, it shouldn't take me long to learn!" he says confidently, then frowns a little. "Geralt, this is beautifully made... I'm not an expert on wind instruments, but it seems really high quality. I hope you didn't, you know, go without anything to get me this..."

"I didn't. Took a contract from a woman whose brother made them, asked them for it as payment."

"So you went without... money?"

"Hmm. I suppose," he admits, watching Jaskier's expression move from gently concerned to amused and back, before returning to happy as he admires the flute again.

"Well... It was extremely generous of you, and thoughtful, and kind. Thank you."

"Shut up," Geralt says (because he's trying to be nicer, but some habits die hard). "I mean... you already thanked me," he amends, looking away because Jaskier's beaming at him again.

"Compliments and thanks still make you desperately uncomfortable then," Jaskier observes mildly.

"No," Geralt says. (It's a lie, of course, he's incredibly uncomfortable and wants this to be over now.)

"I see." He's still not looking but he can hear Jaskier's smile in the words. "Well... Are you..." Suddenly there's hesitation in Jaskier's voice for the first time, and Geralt looks up to see him glancing at the flute in his hands as if to gain reassurance from it. "Are you coming with me then? I've got a room already, you might as well share it, save the coin. And then tomorrow we can... leave together."

(Someone who hasn't known Jaskier as very many years as he has would miss the nervous question in his voice, Geralt is sure.) 

There are so many things he'd like to say in reply, so much reassurance he'd like to be able to offer...

"Yeah," he says instead. (Judging by Jaskier's expression, it'll do.)

***

As soon as they reach the inn, Jaskier retires to his rented room to start teaching himself to play the flute. 

Honestly, Geralt had assumed it was overconfidence talking when he said it wouldn't take him long to learn, but it's literally only minutes before he's playing simple tunes, even though he keeps getting distracted by thinking of things he wants to say to Geralt (questions, mainly, about what he's been doing in the last two years, which Geralt finds he's willing enough to answer). It's... really impressive (which he finds he can express more easily than he once would have) and it's also a pleasant feeling, watching Jaskier enjoy his gift. 

They head downstairs after a while for some mediocre food and a couple of pints each, over which Jaskier seems quite content with just his company, sitting in relative quiet. For his part, Geralt feels more like making the effort to talk than usual. It's... nice, being back together (and far less stressful than he had anticipated it being for at least a while).

After dinner, they go back upstairs and Jaskier continues playing around on the flute while Geralt half-listens and sorts through his equipment, making a list of things he needs to get. 

Eventually someone bangs loudly on the wall from the room next door and screams at them to _shut the fuck up_. 

"Oh fuck off!" Jaskier cheerfully yells back, but he does stop for the night, wrapping the flute carefully in the fabric Geralt gave it to him in.

"I guess we should get some sleep!" he says, looking tired but happy. They haven't made plans for where they're going to go when they leave tomorrow (they haven't even explicitly agreed they'll be going together, but Geralt has no intention of leaving without him, and Jaskier doesn't seem to doubt it) but whichever direction they end up heading in, it's a good idea to get some rest so they can make a relatively early start, and Geralt nods, packing his things neatly back up.

There's only one small, narrow bed in the room (for which Jaskier apologises even though he couldn't possibly have known Geralt was going to randomly turn back up in his life) and Jaskier demands that Geralt take it. They argue about it for a while, then Geralt decides to end the argument for both of them by throwing his cloak out on the floor and lying on it.

Grumbling, Jaskier blows out all the candles and climbs into the bed.

Less than ten minutes later, he gets back out and lies down on the floor next to Geralt (because he is a silly and ridiculous man). Geralt just listens to him rustling around, wrapping a blanket he's dragged from the bed around himself, and smiles into the dark, just a little bit.

"Don't think I've forgotten about hugging you," Jaskier tells him sleepily once he's settled down for a much less comfortable night than he could be having. "In fact, if anything I now owe you TWO hugs... Or you owe me? Anyway. Two hugs, Geralt. I know you're awake. _Two hugs._ I'm just saving them for tomorrow. Don't say I didn't warn you..."

Geralt shifts a bit, trying to get comfortable and thinking about Jaskier hugging him. Yeah, he reckons he'll be ready to deal with being hugged by tomorrow. 

(And the day after that? Who knows?)


End file.
